Super pullover machine $275 on ebay

Members who read my post on this machine (The super pullover) know I love the super pullover machine. In fact it is a minor obsession. I would like to write a book on the machine and exercise.
For years I wanted one but could not afford it. It would always take time to find a gym that even had one. For years I went without one. Often I would join a gym just to use that single machine.
For the lat 2 years I find them online once in a while for a good price. There is an old school Nautilus model super pullover (in fact 12 pieces of Nautilus) from the late 70's/early 80's, online ebay tonight, and for the rest of the week. It's $275.00
There is a Nautilus lower back machine as well which I have always wanted. Those things are great.
Figure on paying $300 for freight shipping. Still it's worth it.
If you ever wanted a pullover machine here is a good chance to own one. These were $5500 or so, new, back in 1980.

Cool! I'm in Canada so adding extra for shipping and maybe duty would probably bring the total to about $1,000 US = about $1,300 Cdn. I want to squeeze a pullover machine in my workout area so I'm getting a local company to build one for me, but if I was in the US and didn't have a pullover machine, and had room for one in my workout area, I would bid on it.

You are building your own pullover? That is cool. Please take pics when you have it done. I have wanted to build one myself.
I have an idea for a unit that would stand in front of a standard low pulley and attach itself to the cable of the low pulley. It would work with any low pulley station. So you could turn any low pully into a pullover.

That sounds like a great idea. I've also had that same idea, about placing various "home made" leverage machines in front of pulley stations to give more variety to my home gym, but I haven't made anything. A very simple idea would be to move a free standing chin up bar in front of a high pulley and put a strap around your ankles. Face away from the pulley to grab a chinup bar, you now have a simple chin assist machine. I haven't tried that, but one idea I tried is to grab a high pulley handle, stand on one leg, and slowly squat on that leg, till my butt touches the floor, then I push my heel against the floor to come to a standing position, for 10 reps each leg. That exercise really seems to target the glutes. I guess you could call it a one leg squat assist... then as you get stronger you reduce the weight on the high pulley. But back to the pullover machine idea, I am actually having a company make me the complete machine. I could take a picture of it when it's finished.. although I don't own a camera yet. The machine will probably take about a month or so to finish, as the company is fairly busy right now with other orders.

A very simple idea would be to move a free standing chin up bar in front of a high pulley and put a strap around your ankles. Face away from the pulley to grab a chinup bar, you now have a simple chin assist machine. I haven't tried that

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heh, I've tried that in a power rack with a lat attachment, and it doesn't work as you are fighting to stabilize the strap more than doing your chins, and also, in a power rack it's too far away. With a freestanding pulley system and by putting a chin-up bar in the ceiling I'd imagine it'd work great.

Once I get my workout area fixed up, I'll see if I can set up something simple for chin/dip assist exercises. The ceiling is only 7 feet high so I'll have to do the chins with knees bent. If I can get to where I can do 10 - 15 reps with no assistance, then I'll probably attach a hip belt to a low pulley, to try to do chins/dips with added weight. I'm a weakling due to sitting on my butt for the last 5 years or so, as I've been spending all my time at the computer, trying to find a way to earn money from the internet so I can work from home. I finally made some money so I've ordered in some exercise equipment, to help inspire me to exercise on a regular basis. Some has come in but it might be about a month before it all arrives and then I'll let you know how the chin/dip assist exercises go.

Don't Quit...I was trying to post the Calf Raise Unit from the Gym Plans I had sent you, but trying to edit it to size distorts the drawing too much. Have you tried to put that drawing up on the board at all?
Everybody else...I've got plans for a removable Standing Calf Raise that can easily be incorporated an existing PowerRack. If anybody wants to take a stab at getting the drawing up on the board, please feel free to fire me a PM.

Don't Quit...I was trying to post the Calf Raise Unit from the Gym Plans I had sent you, but trying to edit it to size distorts the drawing too much. Have you tried to put that drawing up on the board at all?
Everybody else...I've got plans for a removable Standing Calf Raise that can easily be incorporated an existing PowerRack. If anybody wants to take a stab at getting the drawing up on the board, please feel free to fire me a PM.

Why do you need a calf raise machine? Why can't you use blocks of wood and barbells?

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Yes, using a wood block with a loaded barbell works very well. However, most people can do calf raises with a tremendous amount of weight. Much more than they could possibly squat. Having a standing calf raise lets you load the crap out of the machine, and not have to worry about balancing the weight on your shoulders. The picture above isn't all that clear. So it may be hard to understand the mechanics of how easily you can build and attach it to an existing rack, by using the safetys as your pivot points.

Well, I got most of my equipment in and the chin assist idea works fantastic! I can just barely do 2 chinups on my own, (I can hear the snickers in the background) but with the chin assist set up, I did 15 chins in perfect comfort! I had to pause after 12 reps, so i won't reduce the weight on the assist until I can do 15 chins without any pause, then I'll reduce the weight by one half a pound. I hope to eventually do 15 chins unassisted. I'm going to put up a dip assist too. The way I have set it up, is I have 2 adjustable pulley towers about 5 feet apart, and I put up a chin bar between them. I put two hooks on a pair of anti-gravity boots, put the boots on, stand between the pulley towers, set each cable tower to the same weight, adjust the pulleys so they are almost at the top, and pull each cable down, hooking one cable to each of the boots. The ceiling is only 7 feet high so I have to bend my knees. So I face towards the center of the pulley towers, grab the chinning bar, bend my knees, and keeping my legs close together, I let my body lower until my arms are straight, then pull myself up to a chin, with my chin going a few inches above the bar. Very comfortable and I can concentrate entirely on the exercise. With my knees bent, legs together, and knees pushed slightly forward in front of me, it feels as if I'm being helped up by a force pushing up on my butt. I guess maybe that's because the weight of the cables bend my knees until my feet are close to my butt. Anyway, I think it's fantastic to have stuff at home to work out on. I have a tv in the room and a bonus is that exercising makes watching tv more enjoyable than just sitting on a couch, because after an hour or so of watching tv sitting down, I find that my body starts to get restless a bit as it wants to move but then I just ignore that feeling as I'd like to keep watching tv. But now I can watch tv, and take my time doing different exercises. I don't time my rest between sets or anything like that. I basically just look around the room and decide what exercise I'd like to try next. It's fun! Sometimes I go about 15 minutes between exercises if I feel like taking a break but still, I'm sure that a year from now I'll be more fit than I am now.

Dont_quit said:

heh, I've tried that in a power rack with a lat attachment, and it doesn't work as you are fighting to stabilize the strap more than doing your chins, and also, in a power rack it's too far away. With a freestanding pulley system and by putting a chin-up bar in the ceiling I'd imagine it'd work great.

I used to know the differences in the Nautilus lines but I guess I've forgotten them. By name I'd assume the Super Pullover is the 'best' one, but I see there's a Series 2 model on there now for $400. I'm not going to bid on it but any idea how it compares?

I almost bought the nautilus 2st super pullover which I think is the latest model, but a local company said they can make me a good pullover machine for less than half the cost of the 2st pullover so I decided to get them to make a pullover machine for me. It's not in yet though. Will be great to do machine pullovers at home, although I like doing dumbell pullovers on the 75 cm duraball (swiss ball) and will keep doing them even after I get the pullover machine.

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